


Achilles Heel

by cinnaluminum



Category: Schitt's Creek
Genre: F/M, Gen, Puns & Word Play, sad stray animal stories with happy endings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-21
Updated: 2019-08-21
Packaged: 2020-09-23 02:10:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 438
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20332327
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cinnaluminum/pseuds/cinnaluminum
Summary: He wants to be able to explain it in a way other people will understand, but whenever he tries to shed some light on the situation he just keeps coming up with stories about animals.





	Achilles Heel

Ted finds it hard to explain to his friends why he likes Alexis. She's pretty, of course—pretty doesn't do it justice, really. He's never in all his life seen anyone go so far beyond pretty. So that's part of it but it's not anywhere near all of it. She's also smart, and determined, and really fun to be with. That might be enough reasons for his friends to understand, despite the way she keeps adding to the catalogue of her mistakes by breaking Ted’s heart. 

None of that really explains why he keeps letting her back in, though, giving her chance after chance, even though it hurts like a bitch sometimes. He wants to be able to explain it in a way other people will understand, but whenever he tries to shed some light on the situation he just keeps coming up with stories about animals. He can't help it—he’s a vet; it's kind of purr for the course.

When Ted was eight, his family adopted a cat that had been living at the SPCA a long time, cowering at the back of his cage any time someone approached. They never found out what had happened to him, but it took Ted a whole year of patience to get close enough to touch him. The cat would crouch under the dresser in his room, purring when he sat down nearby, but flinching back whenever Ted reached out to touch him, until one day he didn't flinch anymore.

When he was in vet school, Ted used to dog-sit for a husky mix that had lived on the streets for a while. She was a nice dog, but she had appawling manners. She once dragged him across the street to try to eat a greasy pizza napkin that had fallen out of a trash can. She was just always, always hungry—for food, for love, for attention. 

A few years ago, Ted had to cut a shard of glass out of a cat’s paw. She’d been walking on it for weeks, while the toe pad healed all wrong around it. Her family finally noticed when she disappeared into the back corner of the basement and wouldn't come out even for food. Ted still thinks about that cat from time to time, about the specific kind of strength it takes to hide pain like that. 

Of course, he can’t tell these stories and explain that he’s really talking about Alexis. She doesn’t want people to see her that way, and he respects that. But when you’re a vet you can't help taking home strays sometimes. It's an occupurrtional hazard.


End file.
